Quigley

I like libraries. I like libraries a lot. If perhaps I wasn't so interested in money, I might be content as a librarian. I like the way libraries feel. I like the way they smell. I prefer university libraries because they are much more comprehensive, but even small public libraries can be quaint and exciting. I found a quaint little library on the outskirts of a metropolitan county library system. It was small, but modern and new. They have a little collection of movies. My wife is hogging the Netflix queue with Grey's Anatomy, which is alright, but I was longing to watch something different. I looked for a movie the whole family could watch, and thus, in typical fashion, I chose a really bad movie, Quigley, starring Gary Busey.

The story is about a ruthless, self-absorbed businessman who has an accident and apparently dies and goes to heaven. But they won't let him in. He comes back to earth as a Pomeranian dog, to right the wrong, which he does.

The script was terrible, the acting was terrible, the film making was terrible. I mean really bad. But I watched it because the kids were enjoying it. There were a couple of interesting things of note, however.

First is that the movie had an Evangelical overtone. I faintly recalled that Gary Busey, in recent years, had a bad accident of some sort, after which he become a born-again Christian. This was the case, and this movie was made afterward. Which makes sense, that he involved himself in this project.

Second, neither my wife nor I could keep our eyes off the mom in the movie, played by Jessica Ferarrone. Aside from doing about the only good acting, my wife was transfixed by her ample bosom. I must admit it was distracting, but I also thought her very attractive overall. Amazingly, google images returned almost nothing on her. In fact, this is only one of two pics I could find. What I could find out about her is that she was Lydia Karenin on General Hospital in 2003 and that she's been on NYPD Blue and CSI: Miami. Being such an attractive woman, and from what I saw in this terrible movie, a good actress, I'm surprised she hasn't done more movie work. And being so sexy, I'm surprised there aren't more pictures on the internet.

Third, was the odd ensemble of actors including Oz Perkins, Christopher Atkins (of Blue Lagoon fame), Curtis Armstrong, Bill Faggerbakke, and Dorien Wilson. They seemed missplaced here. Their filmographies don't seem to put them in this kind of movie. Perhaps they were just hungry. It was also interesting to note that Christopher Atkins is straight-edge, which can sometimes be aligned with fundamental Christianity. Perhaps that's what drove all these actors to be in this really bad movie, although I didn't look enough to find out all their religious affiliations. Direction and screenplay for this movie was by a William Byron Hillman, who according to IMDB, has only worked on like seven movies (as either writer, director, or actor) in the past 35 years. I can see why. I just have to share a snippet from a netflix member review,

This movie ranks supreme on the unintentional comedy/bizarro scale... Also, when you watch it, just remember that Quigley's budget was around -5 dollars (hard to forget), and that the pomeranian actually wrote the script. It will provide the most enjoyable experience of your life.

Pass on this, unless your kids want to watch it alone.